Chapter Seven: Origin of the Past Heavenly Emperor
We returned to the Siltran castle and let Melty and the others know that Natalia had been selected as the hammer vassal weapon hero.
“A new Dark Brave has been born! Wield that black power with abandon, oh fallen pacifier!” Filolia crowed from the sidelines. Natalia raised her hammer and took a step forward but then stopped.
“Hey, Filolia! Don’t overly excite her!” Mamoru stepped in to caution her.
“It seems to make sense . . . but it won’t be easy,” Ren said, looking at Natalia with sympathy.
“Why does power always choose those who don’t wish for it?” Raphtalia pondered, also looking sympathetic.
“Oh! I like that phrase!” Filolia responded. I thought it was good too.
“Why am I being counted among these . . . unique individuals?” Natalia bemoaned. I wasn’t pleased with her tone. She was clearly using “unique” as a derogatory term. And if heroes were all “unique,” that would include me. I wasn’t pleased with that at all.
“That’s pretty rude to the spirits of the holy and vassal weapons,” I commented. I had my own questions about how the spirits chose their heroes, but I didn’t feel the same as the pacifier. She probably hated the whole world at the moment. I’d give her some time to settle down. “In any case, this puts Siltran on top. The threat of a Piensa invasion has been totally squashed.” Piensa was left with just the Bow Hero. It didn’t look like they had the Carriage Hero.
“True,” Mamoru said. “I didn’t expect things to develop this quickly.” I agreed with that sentiment. Now we’d be able to take our time and search for a way back to the future. “We should continue to collect the weapons and enhance them, don’t you think?”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Collecting them isn’t enough—they need to be strong too.”
“She looks pretty strong already,” Mamoru mused. “We probably don’t need to worry so much.” As we chatted, Natalia suddenly snapped back to herself and looked up.
“Hold on a moment. Now that I’ve been chosen as the hammer vassal weapon holder, what about that hammer I was given the other day?” Natalia asked.
“Restrictions. You won’t be able to use it,” I said.
“That’s how it goes,” Mamoru agreed. After someone was chosen as a hero by a holy weapon or a vassal weapon, they could only use that weapon in battle. That meant Natalia could no longer use the hammer that Holn had given her. Holn nodded upon hearing this.
“Honestly speaking, I’d prefer you used it in combat, but that isn’t an option now,” Holn said.
“Ah, if she can’t use it, maybe I can,” Ruft suggested.
“You’re joking! I’m not giving that hammer to anyone!” Natalia replied immediately. She really didn’t want anyone to hear what it had to say.
“Even if she can’t use it as a weapon, surely she could just keep it on her back. But that sounds like a bit of a waste,” I admitted.
“The weapon will still obtain the information I need,” Holn replied. “It should pick up on her techniques.” If Holn said it, that sounded legit.
“I’m not letting anyone touch this hammer!” Natalia cried out, still raging. “And I’m going to kill that evil alchemist one day!” It sounded like she was trying to calm herself down by focusing all of her hate on Holn.
“I hope she doesn’t let her anger overtake her, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said. The implication there was Raphtalia wanted to add “like you.” I was wondering about that myself. It depended on whether Natalia hated Holn as much as I hated Bitch. They seemed to help each other out, so their relationship couldn’t be that bad.
“Dafu, dafu, dafu!” raged Dafu-chan, seemingly triggered by Natalia’s anger. But her outburst only made her look cuter to me.
“You’ll only hear all those morose comments at the start. Once it’s finished, it should be an excellent hammer,” Holn commented.
“I hope you’re right,” Natalia said pointedly. With that, we welcomed Natalia as the Hammer Hero. I got the impression she would have liked to disappear, but her new duty would not allow for that. Being a hero really was the worst. It felt like some of these spirits—just some of them—were going to incredible lengths to troll our entire lives.
The night after Natalia was selected as a hero, I was alone in my room, drawing up some accessory designs and compounding some medicine.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan, bursting in.
“Dafu!” said Dafu-chan, joining her. Raphtalia was off again helping Keel and the others with their trauma treatments. We hadn’t slept in the same room for a while now.
“Hey. You two want to sleep in my room tonight?” I asked my two visitors. Raph-chan and Dafu-chan slept in all sorts of different places. They had been helping Raphtalia recently, so they often slept with her.
“Dafu,” said Dafu-chan. She took a step forward, stood up on two legs, and then leapt up into the air. With a theatrical puff of smoke, she turned into the form of the past Heavenly Emperor.
“Huh? What’s up?” I asked, puzzled by the change. It probably meant she had something she wanted to discuss with me. “You don’t turn into this form very often. Any special reason today?”
“It takes a long time to charge up the energy for this transformation, eh,” the past Heavenly Emperor explained. “I should have kept more for this purpose.” That explained it. Technically speaking, she was stronger than Sadeena. I would have preferred her fighting on the front lines; the reason she didn’t turn into her human form often was because of the power it consumed. That was quite inconvenient.
“Sounds like you must have something you want to say—and you don’t have long to say it,” I jibed.
“I do not,” the past Heavenly Emperor agreed.
“Shall we have Holn make a few modifications? Increase your transformation time?” I continued.
“I know you like joking around,” the past Heavenly Emperor said, a frown instantly forming on her face, “but stop it. I already look like some freakish teddy bear, eh. I don’t want things to get any worse.”
“Whatever you say,” I placated her. I’d already been pretty sure of this, but it seemed the past Heavenly Emperor didn’t care much for Holn.
“The charge time is improving, anyway—but that only means I’m becoming more accustomed to this body, eh,” the past Heavenly Emperor bemoaned. It sounded like she might be able to transform more often in the future. “I’m going to keep this short even though I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
“Go right ahead,” I said. I wondered if she had purposefully picked a time when Raphtalia wasn’t here and what that might mean.
“First, I need to explain exactly what I am,” she started.
“Raphtalia’s ancestor, right? And coming after Natalia, I’m guessing,” I cut in. “But that hammer of yours looked a lot like the one Holn had.” We still had no real idea who this past Heavenly Emperor actually was. There was Raphtalia, Natalia, and her. That was about all the information we had. “In the original timeline, did that turn up later, and did they use it for the experiment?” I asked.
“No. The way that hammer came into being, eh, and its manufacture are without a doubt the same,” the past Heavenly Emperor said confidently.
“Which means . . . you’re residual memories from Natalia?” I guessed.
“Close to that, eh, but not exactly,” the past Heavenly Emperor replied. “The answer is I was formed from that hammer, but further into the future from now when the personality transcription has been completed.” This meant that the past Heavenly Emperor, sometimes known as Raph-chan II, was not Natalia herself, but rather had been formed from a hammer containing a copy of Natalia’s personality. “It might be due to this unexpected trip to the past, and maybe because I’m growing into this body, but my memories are starting to come back to me. It doesn’t feel exactly like I’m remembering them. This is . . . something else,” the past Heavenly Emperor explained.
“Okay,” I said. I had been hoping for some clues on the immediate future of the age we were now in, but that didn’t sound promising.